Nietzsche Lecture 1
One of the most intriguing of the 19th century Philosophers was Frederick Nietzsche. Nietzsche influenced both Philosophers as well as creative writers such as George Bernard Shaw, W. B. Years and D. H. Lawrence. Nietzsche was born in 1844. He established a great academic career, becoming a full professor at by the time of his mid 20's, which was unheard of in his day. For 16 years he produced his great works including the Birth of Tragedy, The Gay Science, and what is regarded by many as his greatest work, "Thus Spoke Zarathustra."
He influenced such great luminaries of his day as Wagner though with Wagner he later parted company. Regarding his relationship with Wagner Nietzsche's fascination with Wagner's work is evidenced in several of his work and most notably his "The Birth of Tragedy (1872) as well as his subsequent essay Richard Wagner in Bayreuth (1876). However his later break with Wagner was profoundly painful and resulted in Nietzsche's producing a work entitled, "The Case of Wagner (1888). Nietzsche initially believed Wagner to be a means of cultural and spiritual renewal but later he came to view him as a reflection of the problem with culture rather than a solution to the problem, that is the problem of pervasive intellectual and cultural crisis, which Nietzsche described as "the death of God" and the beginning of nihilism.
In Nietzsche's view, traditional religious and metaphysical perspectives were diminishing and were leaving a void which science would be unable to fulfill which in turn endangered the very health and vitality of culture. Interestingly, Nietzsche in reading Schopenhauer's pessimism, found rather a basis for a life-affirming alternative to Schopenhauer's darkness. Nietzsche's thought culminating in his writing "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" in which he arrived at a conception of human existence and possibility in which life takes on meaning and value. He believed that this perspective offered a much-needed alternative to Schopenhauerian pessimism and nihilism.
Eventually Nietzsche attempted to draw together all of the great themes of his work into such great works as "The Will to Power" and "The Reevaluation of All Values" but unfortunately he experienced a mental collapse which was seemingly brought on by syphilis. He was rendered helplessly insane as a result of his disease until 1900.
